KOL Marketing in China - Promote Your Brand with Chinese Influencers
A KOL, or Key Opinion Leader marketing is essentially a Chinese social media influencer or brand ambassador with a large following. As the power of Chinese social and review platforms grew in the 2010s, the integral role of celebrity and influencer profiles with high followings increased. These KOLs have now become crucial as a marketing tactic for brands looking to grow in China. According to the latest data, the market size of the KOL industry in China has grown from 32 Bn RMB in 2018, to 98 Bn RMB in 2021.
What is a Key Opinion Leader (KOL)?
KOL stands for Key Opinion Leader, which is the word given to people with a large following and presence on Chinese social media platforms like Douyin, XiaoHongShu. There is no specific threshold of follower count that makes a Chinese social media personality a KOL - it is sometimes about the level of influence rather than the size of their following that makes them valuable from a marketing point of view. KOL influencers tend to be more well known than personalities with lesser followings.
Those users are given the name KOC to distinguish between KOLs. KOC stands for Key Opinion Consumer. KOCs are the Chinese equivalent of micro-influencers, and typically post content that is more niche and review-based to appeal to their own smaller followings.
KOL Marketing in China
As previously mentioned, KOL marketing is an increasingly valuable and fast-growing segment of the digital marketing mix in China. In fact, the value of the total KOL market has grown by over 200% to 98 Billion RMB as of 2021. The power of KOL brand ambassadors varies by industry type and segment, but can be understood in a few different ways. Firstly, in terms of digital marketing preferences, Chinese consumers surveyed rated KOL endorsement and product placement as their preferred way to be marketed to versus : a 52% share of respondents said this.
Secondly, from the brand perspective, the importance of KOLs to consumers is clearly recognised by advertisers too. According to the latest data, 58% of advertisers in 2022 were planning to invest more marketing into KOL endorsement in the near future.
How Effective are KOL Marketing Campaigns?
KOL campaigns will each have unique performance metrics dependent on the segment or niche audience that the brand is targeting. These can be grouped by the part of marketing funnel in which the KOL activity is being deployed to have an impact:
Awareness Metrics
KOL activity is predominantly used to spread and harvest awareness for a brand or hero product amongst Chinese consumers. Based on the word-of-mouth nature of KOLs on Chinese social platforms, using KOLs as brand ambassadors to grow reach and deepen understanding of what your product or service is can be both extremely powerful and effective.
Brand awareness is typically measured through robust brand metrics tracking, whereby a test and control group of consumers are exposed to the KOL activity, and subsequently asked whether they have familiarity with the brand or product. This can be compared over time to evaluate whether the KOL activity has had an impact on awareness levels. With this success metric that potential audience reach is large though, and so to assess deeper engagement it is better to evaluate KOL activity at intent and engagement metrics.
Intent and Engagement Metrics
KOL activity can be deployed to educate and change perceptions of a brand, product or service, rather than just grow broader brand awareness. The influential role that many KOLs play in the lives, discovery and shopping habits of their followers means that metrics evaluating changing perceptions are worth looking at. For example, a recent KOL campaign we ran for His Majesty’s Government worked with a multitude of Chinese KOLs in Britain to try to deepen understanding of the UK (amongst people in China) as a welcoming and open place to visit. The results in this example were impressive: as a result of being exposed to the KOL activity, 84% of the audience felt more positive about the UK and 80% indicated they would like to visit the UK after viewing our content. As well as perception intent, it is worth noting that KOL activity can also have a large impact on buying intent for different products, although this does vary by the social media platform on which the KOL is active on, as well as the category. For example, data shows that Beauty category KOLs who are active on Little Red Book, or XiaoHongShu, have a larger impact than consumer electronics on the same platform.
Sales Metrics
Whilst in the past KOL activity has been perceived as purely reach and engagement building activity, in truth KOLs used on digital marketing platforms can increasingly be measured to attribute conversion rates on Chinese eCommerce platforms. For example, our recent campaign for Norwegian fashion brand Holzweiler used innovative ad technology to show the impact that KOL-led content creation had on eCommerce conversion rates on Holzweiler’s Tmall.
How to Launch KOL Marketing Campaigns in China
We have laid out the fundamentals of a 5-stage roadmap for launching a successful Chinese KOL campaign:
Identifying your Target Audience
It is crucial when setting your brand up for a successful KOL strategy to ensure that you have clearly identified, through thorough planning and research, a segmented target audience which establishes an addressable Chinese consumer base for your brand to go after.
This segment may be defined by age, location in China, or it could be based on a shared interest that is relevant for your brand. It is imperative to have a clearly defined targeting strategy (who you are targeting, and with what type of messaging) with good brand alignment at the outset, before jumping to the tactical solution of KOLs.
Evaluating the role of KOLs in your Marketing Strategy
Once you have clearly identified your audience strategy, it is as important to have a clear understanding of what the role is that KOLs and your influencer marketing strategy play as part of your broader marketing strategy, be that in China or with Chinese consumers.
This is the stage where you set and agree upon any clear marketing and commercial objectives for your campaign, and for the KOL channel in particular. There is little sense in diving straight into KOL campaign execution without a solid foundation of objectives for the channel.
Platform Selection
There are many social media platforms which you can select for your KOL campaign depending on the category, the objectives and the audience and brand strategy which you have identified in previous stages.
For example, if you are using KOLs as a means of seeding demand and understanding about a new cosmetics product in Eastern China, XiaoHongShu, or Little Red Book, may be the right platform to choose. Alternatively, if you are looking to align your brand with a humorous trend in rural China, perhaps Kuaishou is the right platform. Social Media Platform
KOL Identification
Once you have identified the right social media platforms to correctly execute on your audience strategy, the most next vital step is the selection of the right KOLs. These influencers should serve as both a brand ambassador and also a partner with which to achieve your goals, and so it is important that the selection process is based on a well-understood set of criteria.
Be weary of purely looking at KOL follower count on your chosen social media platform - it is also important to note the level of engagement and influence that a KOL has had previously, the chemistry and actual passion they have for your brand or product, as well as their experience in delivering successful campaigns in the past.
KOL Budgets & Talent Management
There is no sense in identifying the right individual or group of KOLs for your marketing campaign in China if you do not have the ability to negotiate a favourable contract that meets your budget requirements, nor if you are unable to clearly brief and manage your group of KOLs to ensure brand alignment and staying on track with your objectives. In China, KOL relationship building is a really invaluable skill to possess at this stage, ensuring that your vetting process has included contract negotiation is imperative.
Types of China's Key Opinion Leaders
There are many different types of KOLs in China, broken down below and these can all be used according to your campaign strategy and objectives.
Mega Celebrities / Stars
The first group of KOLs are the most well-established mega influencers in China. Often these KOLs are celebrities in their own rights, and have nationwide follower counts across Chinese provinces that can grow into the millions. These KOLs are oftentimes brand advocates for high profile brands across a number of different categories like fashion, beauty and tech, and are highly skilled at building online communities of superfans that follow their purchasing recommendations and reviews. This group are at the top of the KOL hierarchy in terms of power. Examples of these KOLs include: xx and yy
Head KOLs 头部博主
The next group are the KOLs with follower counts that start at 1 million These KOLs are brand advocates with high degrees of authenticity and skill in building huge levels of word of mouth amongst their followings. Examples of these types of KOLs include Zola Zhang, Mr. Bag and Savislook.
Waist KOLs 腰部博主
This KOL group is the middle level (hence the name) with follower counts that range from 500k to 1 million. Sometimes these KOLs specialise in a particular category such as skincare, haircare or street fashion.
Tail KOLs 尾部博主
This group of KOLs could be considered the micro-influencer group within KOLs - they have follower counts that can range from 300k to 500k, and despite not having as large a following as the waist or head group, these KOLs can be used together to offer high levels of targeted brand or product advocacy.
KOCs are the group of normal platform users who have become influencers in China. KOCs are not considered powerful experts within their field, nor are they mega celebrities. However, they are still very much considered powerful and can have a relatively high level of influence amongst their peers.
Head KOCs 头部koc
These KOCs typically have 100-300k followers on platforms like XioaHongShu, Douyin or Weibo.
Waist KOCs 腰部koc
These KOCs typically have 50K-100K followers, but despite their lower follower counts, it may be that their engagement levels and influence on purchasing behaviour is comparable to Head KOCs.
Tail KOCs 尾部koc
These KOCs are the equivalent of micro-influencers within China and are the most common type brands can work with. Many KOLs start off at this level, and oftentimes these KOCs are managed by talent agencies. They are a fantastic way of delivering UGC within brand campaigns, and their following counts typically start at 5k and run up to 50k.
Takeaways
To summarise the above, it is hugely important to consider the following steps before identifying the KOLs or KOCs you wish to include in your campaign: (i) Identifying your target audience, (ii) Evaluating where influencers fit within your broader China strategy, (iii) Determining the right platform to run your campaign on, (iv) Which type of KOL or KOC you want for your campaign, and (v) your budget and contracts with the selected talent.
There are a number of different routes you can take with influencers in China, and whilst it can be a challenge to know where to start, it is important that you ensure you have a clear strategy for KOLs before jumping into execution. Brands run a real risk of believing that KOLs are the solution, but without the experience there is a genuine threat to waste marketing resources.
Work with Hot Pot China for Successful KOL Marketing in China
Here at Hot Pot China we have a deep expertise in all aspects of KOL or KOC selection, management and measurement. As we have discussed above, there are a number of important things to consider when establishing a successful influencer campaign in China, such as campaign strategy, platform selection and finally KOL type. Whilst influence activity in China can seem like a challenge, we have many years of experience in managing such campaigns in China and with Chinese consumers overseas for large brands such as Rituals, Canada Goose, La Perla and Whittard of Chelsea.
We would be delighted to help you deliver a KOL or KOC campaign which delivers real results for your brand. Please get in touch at nihao@hotpotchina.com to book a call with someone from our KOL & influencer team.
